Addiction Is a Disease That Shatters Lives -- It's Time to Say ENOUGH #WeAreShatterproof

I know how terrible the disease of addiction can be. Three years ago, my son Brian -- 15 months clean but unable to handle the shame and stigma of his disease -- took his own life. He was just 25 years old. He had struggled with addiction for nearly a decade and tried time and again to get clean and stay healthy. But addiction is a dark and lonely road for those who walk it. Brian's death shattered my family, and tragically we are not alone. Our story is shared by hundreds of thousands of other parents across the country. Every day, about 22 million Americans struggle with addiction, and it's only getting worse. Fatal overdose rates have skyrocketed across the country in recent years. That's why I founded Shatterproof. Yet despite the thousands of loved ones we lose to addiction every year, our society continues to turn a blind eye to this disease. Too many people continue to dismiss it as a moral failure, a sign of weak character. It's time to say ENOUGH. Just this summer, we saw a national retailer handing out pens shaped like hypodermic needles to promote a salon named Hairroin. Before that, an upmarket department store chain released a sports jersey that replaced the player's name with "Vicodin." Turn on your TV and it won't be long until you spot the obvious junkie character. And it's all banking on the same lesson that "addicts" are nothing more than their condition -- they're not like us, and we can laugh at that. It's a narrative that's repeated everywhere ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news